Page 75 of Back To You

“Excuse me,” Luke chimes in. “I took creative liberties and did pinkpom pomsin my hair that year.” He leans to press a kiss to the top of my head before walking back behind the bar to help Eddie make another round of drinks for us.

“I still can’t get used to that,” Mia says to me, resting her chin in her hand as she turns to look at me.

“Luke’s obnoxious amount of PDA?” I joke.

She shakes her head at me, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder. “No, smart ass. That you actuallylethim. Seriously, I never thought I’d see you two together.”

“As if you weren’t one of the biggest advocates for it.” I laugh, taking my last sip of my gin and tonic. “You’ve had a month toget used to it, girlie pop.”

“We were all rooting for it. Just thought your stubborn ass would never let it happen,” Mia quips as if she isn’t one of the most stubborn people I know.

In all honesty, I thought it would takesome time for me get used to it too, but we fell into our relationship so seamlessly, like it was always meant to happen.

We sometimes struggle with that balance of picking up where we left off and starting fresh, but we’ve been able to find a happy medium between the two—making up for lost time while also taking each other as we are now, not filling in the blanks with what we once knew.

When I told Mia and Drew everything that happened between Luke and me after leaving oureventfulSunday Dinner at the beginning of the month, they couldn’tcontain their excitement, not only for us but because of how we opened up to each other—and bywe, I meanme.

I also had to physically hold them down from leaving Luke’s—my—apartment that night because they were seconds away from finding Devin and holding her down while I beat the shit out of her for what she did to Luke. The three of us spent our whole Saturday Movie Night ignoringSuicide Squadplaying in the background—Drew’s pick because of her new obsession with Jared Leto after rediscovering the song “Dangerous Night” by Thirty Seconds to Mars—and talked about how Luke, of all people, is the last person who deserves something like that to happen.

Of course, no one ever deserves to be taken advantage of in the way Devin took advantage of Luke. It’s wrong and hurtful, and I can’t wait for the day that I see her again because I won’t be the Annie she knows the second I get my hands on her.

But Luke is so open, so warm, so willing to see the best in anything around him and everyone he meets, and I don’t ever want him to lose that part of himself.

“How’s living together, like for real?” Drew asks, passing a sleeping Lennon to Emmett to hold.

“The same I guess. Just more sex,” I answer, honestly, getting a chuckle from Mia and Eddie, and Drew blushes. Emmett even snorts out a laugh.

“Why did I think I’d get a real answer out of you?” Drew says, shaking her head at me like I’m one of her students who made a “your mom” joke, one you want to laugh at but have to be the serious one.

“It really is the same,” I add with my own laughter. “I go to my placement; Luke comes here. He gets home and either makes dinner or picks something up. I come home; we eat; we go to bed.”

“Like an old married couple,” Eddie jokes.

“You would know,” I quip, looking at both him and Mia.

“Okay, okay,” Drew says, waving her hands to stop our antics. Luke sets down another White Claw for her and a new gin and tonic for me, leaning forward on his elbows on the bar across from me. “Let’s table the theme discussion for now. We have to figure out what weekend works best for everyone. It’s our turn to host this year,” she continues, looking at Emmett who gives her a nod, “and we have enough room for anyone who needs to stay the night.”

“We can’t do the first weekend because the band has a photoshoot for their upcoming album,” Mia explains, “which means Mateo, Theo, and Silas wouldn’t be able to do it either.”

“The second weekend?” Drew asks all of us.

Luke and I look at each other. “Annie girl?” he prompts.

“Second works for us,” I answer for the both of us, gaining some knowing looks from our friends, but they quickly recover. We all decide to brush over how Luke and I went from me not wanting him to knowanyof my business to him now being the first person who gets to know it.

“Us too,” Eddie adds.

Drew claps her hands together. “Perfect. I’ll let my brother and Lacey know, and you guys can let all your people know. The girls and I will try to come up with our theme tomorrow at Movie Night.”

“What’s the pick for tomorrow?” Luke asks me, knowing it’s my turn to pick the movie.

“Well, we didn’t get to really watchSuicide Squadlast time, so I think we need a re-do.”

“Oh!” Mia exclaims, causing all of us to flinch in surprise. “What if we do bad guys for our theme?”

“Like villains?” I ask to clarify, and she nods. I look around seeing smiles from everyone, and it looks like we have our theme.

“What are we dressing up as?” Luke asks me.

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